Health care administration master's program gets national recognition

Program ranked No. 32 in Best Master’s in Health Care Administration Degrees

By California State University, Bakersfield

November 15^th, 2021

California State University, Bakersfield has been recognized for having one of the best health care administration master’s programs in the nation.

Best Accredited Colleges has ranked CSUB No. 32 on its list of the 39 Best Master’s in Health Care Administration Degrees. Institutions from across the country were ranked based on tuition cost, acceptance rate, graduation rate and other factors.

Rankings include only accredited, nonprofit schools and uses program-specific data alongside data from the U.S. Department of Education.

“It’s terrific. This is the first time the program has been recognized like this,” Dr. BJ Moore, director of the program, said of the ranking. “Any recognition of the program is to the university’s benefit and to the benefit of the community.”

The goal of the health care administration degree is to prepare students for management roles in health care institutions. Students learn about the economical, legal and ethical issues in the system, how to be good managers and more.

“We want to create reflective practitioners that think about what they’re doing in terms of delivering not only health care services but also wellness,” Dr. Moore said.

As part of the 36-unit program, students are required to apply what they’re learning in class, such as through community service and quality improvement projects. Students are also required to do a thesis and internship.

“We work with a lot of local agencies and try to tailor the internship to what career path the student is interested in,” Dr. Moore said.

One of the unique elements of the Health Care Administration master’s program is that it has a strong international focus. Dr. Moore said about 15 years ago, the program experienced a surge of international students, especially women, who came to the Kern County area because of jobs in the agriculture and oil industries.

Now, about a third of students in the program come from other countries, including India, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, Dr. Moore said. The program typically enrolls around 50 students at any one time.

“Instead of just teaching U.S. health care system issues, we became more oriented to global health care,” she said. “It makes the classroom learning richer. International students bring discussion into the classroom that we could not have without them.”

The focus on global health care gives students who enter the master’s program a better sense of how needs differ from culture to culture, according to Dr. Moore.

“When folks leave here, they’re just more culturally confident in terms of health care,” she said. “One of the aims in terms of improving the quality of health care is addressing culturally competent care.”